Good morning. The good news: Donald Trump said last night that the EU “probably two days” was removed from receiving a trade agreement. The bad news: it is Trump and he could change his mind tomorrow.
Today, our trade correspondent reveals the rising sense of betrayal, among other things, EU member states in the offer of the German car industry to conclude a sweetheart deal with US President Trump, and Laura reports about the EU delegation that went to Libya to talk about migration -and was deported.
Go through
The German car industry has taken hard for a quick trade agreement to win Trump rate lighting – but the efforts are counterproductive finishing as other Member States fear that they will pay the price, writes Andy Bounds.
Context: the EU is approaching an ‘agreement in principle’ with Washington that would leave the most rates in place while conversations continue.
But Berlin is supposed to get a deal for cars, currently covered by rates of 27.5 percent, thanks to the extra 25 percent that Trump imposed on ‘National Security’ grounds in March.
Advised by car manufacturers, whose bosses have been to see Trump personally, Germany has devised an innovative schedule – described as “delusions” by an unnamed committee.
European car manufacturers would be allowed to export one car -free to the US for every car they make and export on American soil.
The beneficiaries would be BMW and Mercedes-Benz, who export some American production to the EU. But not many car manufacturers from other member states, such as France and Slovakia, not.
Various Member States in a meeting on Monday expressed doubts about the move that their companies would punish, according to three people who have informed the discussions. They also said that it would encourage companies to move production to the US and cost jobs.
“Between the committee and the Member States there is a lot of anger in the German car industry for undermining negotiations,” said an EU diplomat. Representatives of the Member States meet again to discuss the issue today.
Germany, the largest exporter in the US, is highly exposed to rates. The German car industry accounts for around 5 percent of GDP in the country.
ACEA, the body of the car industry, said that car manufacturers lost “millions of millions” daily. The German car exports to the US fell by 13 percent in April and 25 percent in May from the same months the previous year, the German industry instance VDA said this week.
The German Chancellor Friedrich Merz is still pressing on the committee to do a fast deal, leaving 10 percent rates across the board, even after Trump had extended a discussion decline from July 9 to 1 August.
“Time is money,” said his spokesperson Monday.
Chart du Jour: Trump Effect
Europe gets a small taste of a first-class problem: the disadvantages associated with operating a world-knocking reserve currency.
Deported
The EU delegation that Libya visited yesterday was rejected in Benghazi, in a grim reality control for those who want to work with the unstable and divided country of migration, writes Laura Dubois.
Context: EU Commissioner for Domestic Affairs Magnus Brunner yesterday traveled together with ministers from Greece, Italy and Malta to convince the authorities to prevent migrants from sailing to Europe.
The delegation was planned to visit both the UN -supported government of National Unit in Tripoli and the rival government of national stability in Benghazi in the east, controlled by the wareer Khalifa Haftar.
But while meetings in Tripoli continued as planned, Brunner and the ministers were told to return home upon arrival at Benina Airport in Benghazi, according to one rack By Osama Saad Hammad, Prime Minister of the Eastern Government.
“They were properly aware of the need to immediately leave Libyan territory and were declared persona non grata,” was the statement.
It claimed that they had acted “in flagrant struggle with established diplomatic standards and international conventions”.
Byron Camilleri of the home shops of Malta wrote On Facebook that the meeting “was canceled after a protocol problem between the local authorities and the EU ambassade in Libya”.
The visit marks the first time in years that an EU delegation has tried to meet authorities in the east who are controlled by HAFTAR and emphasizes the difficulties to deal with its brutal and autocratic regime.
It is also an important setback for European capitals that want to collaborate with North African regimes in curbing migration, despite the fact that some of them are accused of serious human rights violations, as is the case with both Libyous governments.
Brunner wrote on X that the meetings in Tripoli “laid the foundation for broader cooperation”, but those in Benghazi “could not take place in the end.”
What to view today
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NATO-Secretary General Mark Rutte meeting German Chancellor Friedrich Merz in Berlin.
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Chairman of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen and the European Council President António Costa speak in the European Parliament.
